I am the registered owner of a freehold residence in Canonbury but nevertheless charged rent, why is this and what is this?
It’s unusual for properties in Canonbury and has limited impact for conveyancing in Canonbury but some freehold properties in England (particularly common in North West England) pay an annual sum known as a Chief Rent or a Rentcharge to a third party who has no other legal interest in the land.
Rentcharge payments are usually between £2.00 and £5.00 per year. Rentcharges have existed for many centuries, but the Rent Charge Act 1977 barred the generation of fresh rentcharges post 1977.
Previous rentcharges can now be extinguished by making a lump sum payment under the Act. Any rentcharges that are still in existence in 2037 will be extinguished.
The Canonbury conveyancing lawyers that just started acting on my purchase in Canonbury have suddenly shut down. I only went with them because I needed a firm on the Skipton conveyancing panel and my family Canonbury lawyer was not. I issued them a cheque for £250 in advance. What do I do now?
Assuming that you have an Estate Agent in the equation then inform them immediately so that they can let the sellers know that there may be a slight delay due to the problems encountered. Hopefully they will be sympathetic and urge their lawyer to send a new set of papers to your new solicitors. You should appoint new lawyers that are on the Skipton conveyancing panel and notify the lender. If you have paid over any money, it will hopefully be held by the SRA as money in an intervened firm's bank accounts is transferred to the SRA. Then, the SRA or the intervention agent looks at the intervened firm's accounts to work out who the money belongs to. To claim your money you will need to contact the SRA. If the SRA cannot return money you are owed from the firm's bank accounts, or if they can only return part of the money, you can apply to the Compensation Fund for a grant. Your new lawyers may be able to help.
My colleague recommended that if I am buying in Canonbury I should carry out a Neighbourhood, Planning and Local Amenity Search. What does it cover?
A search of this type is occasionally included in the estimate for your Canonbury conveyancing searches. It is not a small document of more than thirty pages, listing and detailing important information about Canonbury around the property and the people living there. It incorporates an Aerial Photograph, Planning Applications, Land Use, Mobile Phone Masts, Rights of Way, the Canonbury Housing Market, Council Tax Banding, the type of People living in the area, the dominant type of Housing, the Average Property Price, Crime statistics, Local Education with maps and statistics, Local Amenities and other useful data regarding Canonbury.
five months have elapsed since my purchase conveyancing in Canonbury concluded. I have checked the Land Registry website which shows that I paid £200,000 when infact I paid £180,000. Why the discrepancy?
The price paid figure is taken from the application to register the purchase. It is the figure included in the Transfer (the legal deed which transfers the property from one person to the other) and referred to as the 'consideration' or purchase price. You can report an error in the price paid figure using the LR online form. In most cases errors result from typos so at first glance the figure. Do report it so they can double check and advise.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a leasehold apartment up to £235,500 and found one close by in Canonbury I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, however it's only got 52 years on the lease. There is not much else in Canonbury suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error purchasing a short lease?
Should you need a mortgage the remaining unexpired lease term may be an issue. Discount the price by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the property for a minimum of twenty four months you may request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the existing lease term and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this matter.
My husband and I are a couple of weeks into a freehold purchase having been directed to solicitors by the high street agent to handle our conveyancing in Canonbury. I am not happy. Can you you assist me in finding new solicitors?
A lawyer would need to be really bad in order to consider diss instructing them. Has the mortgage offer been issued? If so you must advise them of the replacement lawyer and have the loan are re-issued. The solicitor ideally should be on the lenders panel to avoid escalating costs and frustration. That should be your first question of the new lawyers. The find a solicitor tool can assist you in finding a lender approved conveyancer for your home move in Canonbury